Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he will push for a "permanent fix" to bolster a depleted health care program for retired coal miners.

In an interview on Kentucky Education Television's "One to One," the McConnell vowed to help the 16,500 miners who faced the loss of healthcare benefits Dec. 31 – until Congress passed a stopgap budget bill that ensured the coverage for four months.

"We're going to try to go for a permanent fix because these folks deserve to be protected,” McConnell said in the interview that aired Monday.

"Their healthcare deserves to be protected. It's important. It's collateral damage from the decline of the coal industry, much of it attributable to the policies of Barack Obama, which I'm hoping the new president will reverse."

McConnell pointed out he had supported a year-long extension of the benefits but the extension only runs through April, when lawmakers will have to find a longer-range solution.